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UDEPUR PRASASTI OF THE KINGS OF MALVA.
225
This king, no doubt, as Dr. F. E. Hall and Sir A. Cunningham have long since assumed, is identical with the Krishnaraja of the land-grants. The two nenues are synonyms, and, if the new list is complete, there is no room for a K signnaraja besides an Upendra." The fact that in the lund-grants Vairisiṁha is said to meditate on Krishna's feet,' need not cause any difficulty. The phrase does not necessarily indicate that the two kings immediately followed each other. For, though usually it refers to an immediate predecessor, there yet are cases whero it is used with reference to a remoter king. Thus some of the Chaulu kya land-grants (Indian Antiquary, vol. VI, pp. 184, 194) assert that Durlabha meditated on the feet of Chamunda, though Vallabha was his immediate predecessor. The time when Křishņa-Upendra ruled, may be ascer. tained approximately by counting backwards from VAkpati II., who, as will be shown below, died between A. D. 994 and 997, after reigning for about twenty years. About 150 years are required for six generations, and the acquisition of Melvå by these Peramâras may thus be placed shortly after 800 A. D.
The descriptions of the next kings, Vairisimha I., Siyaka I., and Vak pati I., are purely conventional. Not a single historical fact is recorded regarding them either in the Udepur Prasasti or in any other document, except that they followed each other in the direct line of succession. Their reigns probably filled the period from about 840 to 920 A. D. With respect to Vakpati's successor Vairisimha II., the case does not stand much better. But we learn at least through the Udepur Prasasti that "the people called him by another name, Vajratasvamin." This fact may prove to be of importance hereafter.
The next king is called Sri-Harsbadeva in the Udepur Prasasti, Sri-Harsha. deva or Siyaka in the Navasáhasdui kacharita, simply siyaka in the other epigraphic documents, and Simhabhata in Merutunga's Prabandhachintamani. The complete name probably was Harshasimha (Harakhsingh), both parts of which were used as abbreviations instead of the whole. The form Siyaka is a half Prakritic corruption of Simhaka. For in modern Gujarati and other dialects the termination simha becomes in names not only singh or sangh, but very commonly sí, which is immediately derived from the Prakrit sha. Thus we find Padamsí instead of Padmasinha, Narsi for Narasimha, Arsi for Arisimha, Amarsi for Amarasimha. According to the Navardha. sánkacharita (XI, 89—90) Siyaka conquered the lord of Raq û pâți and a king of the Hûnas. Who these persons were and where their territories lay, cannot as yet be ascertained. With respect to the Hanas or Haņas, it may be noted that those mentioned here and in other medieval inscriptions are not Huns, but a Kshatriya race.14 For the bards and the Jaina Prabandhas regularly enumerate the Hûnas among the thirty-six Kshatriyakula, and their matrimonial alliance in the eleventh century with the Kalachuris precludes the possibility of their having been then considered foreigners. It is, however, a different question whence they originally came. Among the Rajputs there are certainly elements of un-Aryan origin. The new information, furnished by verse 12 of the Udepur Prasasti, according to which Siyaka II.-Harsha, "equalling the snake-eater (Garuda) in fierceness, took in battle the wealth of king
12 The latter probably was the poetical form of the name, fre , which Pandit Ramchandra considers the correct and Krishna or ita Prakrit equivalent was that used in everyone, is of course to be rejected. day life.
1 4 This has been first pointed out by Dr. F. E. Hall, Jour. 1 Prabandhackintamani, p. 55 (Bom. ed.) The reading As. Soc. Beng. vol XXXI, p. 117, note 11.
2 P
